Beauty At The Lab Bench

Scientists are using electron microscopy to understand the reaction of carbon dioxide and minerals for the deep underground storage of the greenhouse gas. This colorized photo shows the growth of the mineral dypingite (golden fl orets) by the reaction of supercritical carbon dioxide in water (not shown) and the mineral olivine forsterite (green and purple). The stalk is about 15 µm long and the fl oret is about 5 µm long. It was colored by graphic designer Nathan Johnson. Bruce Arey, Andy Felmy, Odeta Qafoku, and Zheming Wang provided the image. (The blue is a carbon tape on which the particles of forsterite sit.)

This scanning electron microscope image shows a corallike polymer structure that formed when a polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer sca old for growing calcium phosphate crystals unexpectedly crystallized with itself. Before imaging, the polymer structures were transferred onto carboncoated copper grids and sputtered with silver.

In a fermenter used for biofuel research, air flow and an impeller synergize to bring out the simple beauty of mixing. The combination of the air flow from the sparger and impeller assembly spinning at the same time caused the beautiful effect, says Gureet Chandhok, who took the photo.

Sparks fly off of a copper plate that has been coated with a high-voltage insulating material during a test of its dielectric breakdown strength. The insulating material is a polyester varnish that is used to protect high-horsepower motors.

The view from above as enamel electrical insulation materials are poured into a dish. Each of the three polymer solutions has been mixed with a different dye. All of them are polyesters that can be coated onto high-horsepower motors and then cured into a solid film.

While working on bioinspired antifouling surfaces at Virginia Tech, Mehdi Kargar observed spherical bacteria that had accumulated on polystyrene nanofibers in the shape of a flower. The leaves are nanofibers that were pushed aside by the energy of the microscope’s electron beam.